April 29th began Week 2 of spring banding at Chico Basin
Ranch. We started off with a respectable
49 birds of 16 species banded on Monday and ended with a paltry 17 birds on
Saturday. On Monday we banded the first
and only Empidonax species of the
season thus far, a Gray Flycatcher. Also
on Monday we caught FOS Common Yellowthroat, Spotted Towhee, and Clay-colored,
Chipping, and Lincoln’s Sparrows.
We banded 26 birds on Tuesday, including 2 Long-eared Owls
and a feisty male Red-naped Sapsucker that remained in the grove at least
through Saturday. The Swainson’s
Thrushes arrived on Thursday (station closed Wed. due to inclement weather)
though we captured only two that day, then another four on Friday. Also on
Friday we banded FOS Townsend’s
Solitaire, Virginia’s Warbler, and Green-tailed Towhee, for a total of 31
birds.
We closed the week on Saturday with 17 birds that included
another Long-eared Owl, a diminutive male Sharp-shinned Hawk, and seven more
Swainson’s Thrushes. John Drummond &
Company found a lovely Lewis’s Woodpecker in the grove that stayed high up in
the tall cottonwoods (i.e., we didn’t band it).
Total banded for the first half of the season is 224 birds
of 30 species. We hope things will pick
up during the next two weeks.
Conditions remain very dry with leaf-out later than usual. The station closes
Saturday, May 18th.
Nancy Gobris and Steve Brown
Rocky Mountain Bird Observatory
--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups
"Colorado Birds" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email
to [email protected].
To post to this group, send email to [email protected].
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
